


Freedom's Lance- the Worst Best School in America

by Commandant



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Dangan Ronpa AU, Gen, Multi, because why the fuck not, most of these people are dead anyway
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-30
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-10 12:24:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5585251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Commandant/pseuds/Commandant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Freedom’s Lance Academy is the best high school in the country, only admitting the most talented students in the country. The test this year's class is about to walk into though, is far more than they were planning on.</p><p>Red vs Blue Murder School AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue: Welcome to Freedom's Lance (Part 1)

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know how much overlap these fandoms have but??? You don't have to be familiar with Dangan Ronpa to enjoy this fic. It might actually be even better if you're not. Please enable my insane crossover ideas.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I fucking hate school. But when you get invited to go to one of the best schools in the country, you’d be pretty stupid to say no, right? My name is Lavernius Tucker and just a few weeks ago, I got an acceptance letter from a school I didn’t even apply to. Not the kind of thing that usually happens to an average student like me. Meanwhile, they say Freedom’s Lance Academy is the best high school in the country. Weird name, right? It’s always been invitation only, and they only invite students who are “outstanding in their field.” So you’re probably wondering, “hey Tucker, what the hell is a kid like you doing to get an invitation like that?” Well apparently every year they do some sort of raffle. Out of all the possible students in the country, my name was picked. So for that I get labeled with “outstanding luck.”

So, that’s how I ended up here staring up at this ridiculously huge school. I’m sure I’ll get a lot of shit from all the super geniuses that for sure I’m gonna be in class with, but I don’t really care. I mean, unless it’s some hot chick. Then I might care a little. In any case, this school is ridiculous. All the buildings are made of some kind of bright white stone and the main one seems to be like 50% windows like it’s the baby of a regular school and one of those glassy high rise skyscrapers. The huge tower in the center of all this is probably why it has a name like “Freedom’s Lance.” I take a deep breath before pushing in through the front doors.

I was kind of expecting to see more people when I walked in. Sure, I was early, but I can’t be the only one. You’d think there’d be an egghead or two getting in early to sharpen all their pencils perfectly or whatever it is nerds like that do. The entry hall was massive, way too big for any normal school. The ceiling went all the way up and I could see the tower through the glass that covered most of it. Even the higher floors inside this building looked out onto this room. With the waterfall sprawling across three floors at the other end of the room with what looked like a small jungle sprouting up around it, I felt more like I was in a museum or a zoo than a school. I mean, what kind of crazy school has a freaking waterfall in it? Obviously it’s manmade but come on. “Man, how am I supposed to relax in a place like this?” I said to no one in particular as I glanced down one of the long hallways that split off from every direction like spider legs. I didn’t have a chance to consider it further because the next moment I got run over by a truck.

Or well, that’s what it felt like. It was actually just an unreasonably huge person. “Hello! You shouldn’t lie on the floor like that! Someone might step on you!” was, for some reason, the words they chose to say to me. Not even as a joke, they sounded not only entirely serious but incredibly enthusiastic about it.

“Dude… I wasn’t, you fucking ran into me,” I groaned as I sat up and turned toward this guy. Huge, but with a soft face and a huge smile. If you could imagine a large dog that got turned into a person, that’s what this guy looked like.

“My name is Michael J. Caboose!” he replied as if he hadn’t actually heard what I said, “I am very excited to be here today!” I had half a mind to ask him why he was yelling pretty much everything he said but I was starting to suspect he maybe wasn’t the overachieving brainiac I was imagining everyone at this school was. It was almost a relief, but then again I already felt tired out dealing with the guy. I was always more of a cat person, myself.

I climbed back onto my feet and it became all the more obvious how huge this Caboose guy was. Now, to be fair I’m not a tall guy. But Caboose had to be well over 6 feet already. It was pretty ridiculous. “I can tell. I’m Lavernius Tucker, just Tucker is fine.” I held out my hand and was a little surprised when Caboose actually took it.

I was less surprised when his idea of a handshake was a vice grip and almost ripping my arm out of the socket. “Are you here for the Orange Tay Shun, Tucker?” he asked me when I was finally freed, and it took me a moment to figure out what he meant.

“Orientation, you mean?”

“Yes. Yes, that is what I said,” he replied. The tone in his voice almost sounded like he thought I was an idiot but surely that couldn’t be the case.

“Yeah, I—” out of nowhere, my vision faded out and I almost fell over. Thankfully my giant new friend caught me. Or at least, that’s what I thought had happened.

 _______________________________________________________________  
  


When I opened my eyes again I was sitting at a desk in a completely different room. It’d be an understatement to say I was confused. So of course it was just then that someone decided to add to my problems by hitting me. “Hey, wake up,” some asshole said, I assume the guy hitting me. 

I chose to express that I was in fact awake by groaning and flipping off no one in particular as I pushed myself up off the desk.

“See, I told you it would work,” the same asshole said. Bottle blond hair and a face like he hadn’t slept in three days and was incredibly disgruntled about it. Definitely an asshole.

There was a girl next to him with huge glasses and dark hair who looked at least a little more concerned about my condition, which was nice, “I still have to insist that wasn’t a medically viable— Ah, never mind that,” she turned to me, almost chipper, “how are you feeling, Lavernius?”

I rubbed my head, which I just then noticed hurt like hell. “Terrible. Feel like I— Wait, how did you know my name?” I said, frowning. The asshole rolled his eyes like it was a stupid question but didn’t say anything. “It’s Tucker, by the way,” I added before Lavernius stuck. It’s not a bad name, I guess. Just never felt like it suited me.

“Oh, process of elimination of course! There’s a class roster posted out in the atrium and everyone else is accounted for, so that makes you Lavernius Tucker!” she said, sounding excited even though there wasn’t really anything exciting about it. “Can you stand up, Tucker?” she asks me.

“We’ve been waiting for you for 20 minutes now,” the guy added, as if I was some horrible inconvenience. Like I’d intentionally remained unconscious. Unbelievable. Ignoring him, I got up out of my desk, ignoring the terrible headache. It wasn’t like I was injured or anything.

The girl clapped her hands together, “wonderful! I’ll go round everyone else up! You two come along to the atrium when you’re ready!” I really wasn't keen on the idea of being left alone with Captain Angry Asshole, but before I could protest she’d darted out of the room. Again, unbelievable. I had expected my classmates here to be weird but… not like this.

After what felt like a solid 30 seconds of silence, I looked up at the guy. “Dude, what the hell is your problem?” I asked, not mincing words seeing as he didn’t bother to do so for me. For some reason he looked surprised, but the next second he’d settled back into what seemed by now like an eternal frown.

“Phi said no explanation until everyone is there,” he said cryptically. I didn’t know who Phi was and I certainly didn’t know what needed to be explained. “Come on, I don’t want to waste any more time,” he said, turning to leave the room.

He probably would’ve just left me there if I didn’t follow after him, so I elected to just jog after him.

After I caught up to him, I spoke up again, “hey so, I’m not entirely against just addressing you as ‘hey asshole’ until the end of time, but I figure I should probably ask what your name is. Since I actually know how to, y’know, interact with other people like a normal, well-adjusted person. Plus, you know mine already.”

He didn’t even turn to look at me, walking briskly with his back tense like he’s going off to war. “Washington,” was all he replied with.

“Just Washington?”

“Just Washington.”

“Whatever you say, Mr. President.”

“Shut up,” he responded curtly, “we’re here. Try not to piss anyone else off.” He pushed open a set of double doors at the end of the hallway that opened onto a large room that was for some reason lit in an ominous vaguely reddish light. After stepping through the doors, I realized what it was that needed explaining.

It was the huge hall I’d been in before, but everything was different now. All the windows were covered with metal shutters like we were now in some huge horrible bomb shelter. As I turned back, I realize the hallway was covered with them too. The gratuitous amount of natural light had been replaced by a series of red and white fluorescent lights. I had to wonder if these were the normal lights in place when the sun sets. Hopefully not. Though I guess it wasn’t like I was planning on still being inside the school building at night. Like I said before, I’m not a nerd or anything like that. It was eerily silent and after a moment I realized that it was because the fountain wasn’t even running anymore. “What the hell…” I mumbled, frowning.

“You see now why I’d really like to find out what’s going on,” Washington said. I hated to agree with him but yeah, I imagined standing around for 20 minutes with the school switched into what had to be some sort of lockdown mode with no explanation would be pretty irritating. There was even a shutter where the huge entryway door used to be. “Come on,” he added, heading off toward the craggy formation of fake rocks that the lack of running water had revealed. A bunch of people had gathered there, a fact that I had somehow only just noticed then.

As I walked over, I spotted a familiar face, “Caboose!” I jogged the rest of the way there, though I wasn’t sure why I felt so glad to see a guy I had just met. Maybe it was just the mental association with a time before everything had gone to… well, whatever the hell was going on now.

He stared down at me, blankly, “Hello. My name is Michael J. Caboose.”

I frowned, “yeah, I know, we already met earlier.” I paused, taking in the confusion that set more firmly across his face. “Did you already forget?”

“I’ve only known this guy for 20 minutes but I’m absolutely positive he has. Don’t worry about it,” another guy walked up as he patted both of us on the shoulder. It’d probably have been more smooth without the massive height difference between me and The Human Dog, but points for trying, I guess. The new guy turned to me to flash a winning smile and hold out his hand. “Glad to have you finally with us, sleeping beauty. Francis York, at your service.”

I shook his hand, thinking to myself that this guy seemed way too cool to still be in high school. Usually, that means there’s something else wrong with him. Not that I’d say that out loud. “Lavernius Tucker. Nice to meet you.”

York turned his head to look behind me, and it took me a moment to realize Washington was still standing there, “try to lighten up a bit, yeah Wash? We’ll get this all sorted out soon.” From the surprised look on my asshole escort’s face, I figured this was an unsanctioned nickname. Not that I wasn’t going to use it anyway. It was a hell of a lot shorter than Washington. He didn’t have a chance to complain though, because York was already walking away, over to a girl with bright red hair who was standing on the edge of the empty pool that used to be the bottom of the waterfall with her arms crossed over her chest.  
  
Somehow, I got the feeling she’s in charge.

“Alright,” she said in an authoritative tone of voice, “now that everyone is here, Let’s do a quick formal round of introductions before heading back to the gym.” She looked down at me and I couldn’t help but feel intimidated by her fiercely green eyes. Though, at the same time, it was the kind of look that just made you more determined to win her over. Me, I’m only every ambitious when it comes to chicks. Gotta have your priorities, you know?  
  
“Lavernius Tucker,” she said, “my name is Carolina. Emily said you’d prefer to go by Tucker?”

I nodded, fighting to keep the words from sticking in my throat. Keep it cool, Tucker. “That’s right. But _you_ can call me… anytime.” I managed to crack out with a suggestive grin. I distinctly heard the groan of another girl off to the side.

Carolina raised her eyebrows, like she was surprised, but somehow I felt like the look she was giving me was a warning. “Anyway…” she turned her head to look at the glasses girl from before, standing on her other side.

“Oh, yes!” She said as if she’d just been zoning off. After pausing a moment to brush her bangs out of her face, she continued, “I’m Emily Grey. We met before, though I guess I forgot to introduce myself!”

The next guy in the row had his face in his phone so Emily had to shove him to get his attention. “Oh, Dexter Grif. Welcome to the party,” he said with an unnecessary amount of fake enthusiasm before tacking on the most sarcastic, “woo” I’d ever heard. Then he just looked back down at his phone.

The guy next to him, meanwhile, was exactly the kind of hyper-nerd I was expecting to meet here. “Grif! You’re supposed to be paying attention!” he whined like he was Grif’s mom or something. Whoever decided to pair up the pale skinny ginger with the fat Hawaiian guy probably deserved some sort of comedy medal. “I’m Simmons, uh— Dick Simmons. Nice to meet you.. I guess?”

“Oh come on already,” is what pulled everyone’s attention over to the opposite side of the group. It might’ve even been the same girl who groaned earlier. “What is this first grade bullshit? Who cares what everyone’s name is?” the girl with bleached hair and a visibly bad attitude complained. She seemed like the kind of girl who’d kick your ass for looking at her funny so I instead focused on the tall guy in the vividly purple sweater standing next to her.

“South, we’re going to have to learn our classmate’s names eventually anyway, it’ll be easier—” he said in a remarkably calm voice as he held his hands up like he was trying to calm a bull.

“Whatever,” she scoffed, hands on her hips as she turned away from the group.

Apparently, deciding he might as well go next since everyone was looking at them anyway, purple sweater spoke up. “I’m… North Hadley. My sister here is South. Sorry about the… outburst,” he said with a soft smile that didn’t seem to piss off his sister any further, somehow. Maybe because he was her brother? I for one was having a hard time believing they were related, let alone that those were their real names. I wasn’t sure why you’d use a fake name in high school, though.

“I’m Donut!” the guy on his other side practically interrupted. Aggressively blond like North, he was definitely the only person present who could rival Caboose in unwarranted excitement. “Franklin Delano Donut!” I made a mental note to ask someone why everyone in this class had such weird names. Like sure, Lavernius was uncommon, but it was better than being called _Donut_.

Meanwhile, in contrast to Donut, who looked like an overgrown boy scout, the guy next to him had more piercings in his face than I’d ever seen in my life. I was pretty sure there were tattoos peeking out under the sleeves of his uniform, too. At least, I hoped they were tattoos, seeing as my second guess was knives. When he noticed it was his turn he grinned and flashed me a mock salute, “Felix Hyeong. Glad to see you’re not dead yet.” I wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean, but I wasn’t really loving the attention this guy was giving me. He seemed like he was most likely to either be an eccentric artist or a future murderer and I really didn’t want to take those chances.

Next a plain looking girl with a side-cut gave a little wave, “Connie Teagan. CT for short.” She then glanced next to her at a guy who was somehow even larger than Caboose, and looked about 100 times more likely to snap me in half. Seriously, this guy couldn’t possibly be a freshman. Unless he got held back like… three years, at least.

“Maine,” he grunted after a moment in an impossibly deep voice. I was kind of expecting something Hispanic with the way he looked, but the weird names were starting to surprise me less and less as the introductions went on.

South laughed sharply. “Your name can’t fucking possibly be Maine,” she scoffed.

I didn’t think she was really in any place to judge with a name like South, and from the way his eyebrow arched I got the feeling Maine felt the same way. But the only real response he gave her was a shrug. South looked like she wanted to argue more but the next guy in the row cut in, putting his hand on one of Maine’s burly arms.

“Now South, it’s important that we respect the names everyone chooses to be called! If we all keep up a positive attitude, this whole situation will go a lot smoother, for sure!” The guy turned his too-wide smile on the rest of us, “Butch Flowers, at your service!”

Meanwhile the guy next to him clearly came from the fanciest school of the bunch, judging by his uniform. “Reginald Winston,” he said in a frankly ridiculous British accent, like a cartoon character. With all the probably fake names going around, who was to say that accent isn’t fake too? Not that it really mattered that much, I guess. Maybe he was a drama kid. Because that was what we needed. Despite what that Flowers guy had just said, I wasn’t really sure a positive attitude was possible to maintain in a group like this.

Finally, we’d somehow wrapped back around to the guy with the gelled up hair who’d stepped in earlier, “still York. Dunno if Wash wants to give us a full name now or not,” he said in an almost teasing tone of voice. I wasn’t sure why he was poking at a guy who I could already tell didn’t have a sense of humor.

In fact, I wasn’t even expecting him to respond, but he did. “David Washington,” was all he said, though. Didn’t even bother correcting the nickname so he must’ve already come to terms with it.

I surveyed this frankly bizarre crew that was apparently my class at this school. I hadn’t even noticed the stern girl in black on the fringe of the group until she spoke up. “Tex,” was the only name she gave, “let’s go.” She turned to head towards the doors that I only just now noticed on either side of the former waterfall. Apparently no one had a problem with her curt introduction because they were all following after her. Maybe they were just too impatient for answers to care.

“What’s going—” I asked as I turned to look at Wash but he was already walking past me. Asshole. I guessed I just had to follow after everyone else to figure out what the deal was.

The room the doors opened into looked like the auditorium, so at least it already didn’t have windows. No need for depressing metal shutters. There was rows of plush blue seats, enough to fit the entire student body instead of just our class, I had to guess. No one else seemed to be in the room, that is, until Tex and Carolina at the head of the group got down to the first row of seats. When they did, something appeared at the podium on the stage.

I’d never actually seen one in person before, but I paid enough attention to the news and stuff to recognize an AI when I saw one. It was a sort of ruddy red, in the form of a man in some sort of plain uniform, arms folded behind his back. “Thank you all for coming,” it said in a creepily calm voice, “for those I have not already met, my name is Phi. Now, if you’ll all sit down, I can explain the terms by which you can escape this school. I suggest you listen closely, as failure to follow the rules will be… fatal.”

Well, it was official. My first day of high school? Absolutely bullshit.


	2. Prologue: Welcome to Freedom's Lance (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first day of school gets infinitely more terrible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would've split up the two prologue chapters up differently if I knew this one was gonna end up so long OOPS. The next chapter will have free time segments so this is the time to do requests!

Unsurprisingly, the most vocally opinionated one of our group was the first one to react. “What the hell do you mean, fatal!?” South objected, striding forward down the aisle angrily, pushing the ultra-nerd out of the way in the process. He tripped with a yelp, falling over one of the auditorium seats in the process. The problem with being tall and gangly, I guess. Hard to balance. If the atmosphere hadn’t been so tense, I probably would have laughed.

“Miss Hadley, if you’ll sit down, I can explain exactly ‘what the hell I mean,’ to use your words exactly,” the AI responded, still as calm as ever. I mean I guess he had no reason to be scared of her, he was a hologram. You can’t punch a hologram.

Or at least, I didn’t _think_ you could. I had half a mind to look it up on my phone but now didn’t really seem like the time. Meanwhile, South was still yelling. She wasn’t the only one talking but she was definitely the loudest.

“Fuck you! You can’t just say something like that and— hey, put me down asshole!”

Maine, the one who picked her up, didn’t seem to hear or care, instead forcefully setting her down in a seat next to her brother. I hadn’t even noticed he’d sat down, to be honest. “Stay,” is all he growled at her. It kind of spooked me every time he talked. I’d never heard a voice that deep.

South was still angry though, and she’d probably have been back on her feet immediately if North wasn’t holding onto her arm. “You-you think you can just manhandle me and get away with it!? I’ll kick your—”

“Everyone sit down and be quiet!” Carolina finally cut in at a volume louder than I would have expected possible from a girl her size. There was a lot of angry and agitated muttering, but everyone did as she said after a moment, myself included.

After a pause, as if to make sure that everyone was staying put, the AI, Phi, started up again. “Very well. I’d like to welcome you all to your first year at Freedom’s Lance Academy, a school with the goal of preparing its students for the undoubtedly bright futures that await you, the young best and brightest,” the AI droned on, moving slightly as if it was pacing slowly across the top of the podium it was projected above. “But this year, we are employing a slightly… different test for you.”

“A test?” Simmons asked, excited like the ultra-nerd he clearly was. His glasses were still askew from South pushing him over. I wondered if anyone was gonna tell him.

“A test!?” Grif repeated, sounding more horrified than excited as his voice cracked with indignation, “you can’t give us a test on the first day! That’s illegal!”

“Both of you, shut up!” Wash snapped at them with enough venom to make them both startle a bit in their seats. Proving my point that he didn’t have a sense of humor.

Phi made a noise that might have been some sort of laugh, though it was hard to tell with all the digitized distortion, “there is no need for alarm, this is not the sort of test you’re thinking of.”

“It’s a test of survival, isn’t it?” York asked coolly from his seat in the first row near Carolina, feet kicked up on the edge of the stage. “That’s why we’re the only ones in the school.”

The AI nodded, “correct. Very perceptive. The six—” Phi paused a moment as he looked around the room, “seventeen of you have been locked inside the school. The security system of this building is top of the line, forcible means of exiting are not only prohibited but highly inadvisable. Therefore, you must strive to survive inside this building until you can meet the victory condition. The rules of the survival game are thus,” Phi gestured behind him as the stage’s curtains were pulled away to reveal a giant video screen. Half of the screen lit up to display a bunch of text titled “SCHOOL RULES” that Phi proceeded to read out loud. “Rule One: Students must remain within the school building at all times while the Survival Game is in progress.  
Rule Two: Curfew is from 11PM to 6AM. Certain areas of the school are off-limits at this time and will be marked as such.  
Rule Three: Sleeping outside of the dormitory is considered sleeping in class and is prohibited.  
Rule Four: Disabling surveillance equipment or attempting to tamper with any of the school AI is prohibited.  
Rule Five: Any student who succeeds in killing another student without getting caught by their classmates will ‘graduate’ and be allowed to leave the school.  
Rule Six—”

But of course, no one heard what Rule Six is because we were all too busy _freaking out_ over Rule Fucking Five.

“D-Did he say we have to kill someone!?”

“What is the meaning of this?”

“We have to kill someone to escape??”

“This is illegal, are you insane!?”

“I CAN YELL THE LOUDEST ABOUT THINGS!”

“My parents wouldn’t allow for this!”

All the voices started to blur together. I didn’t really even know who was saying what. Not that it mattered much, I was barely paying attention. You know in movies when everything slows down and all the sound gets muted? Yeah, it was kind of like that. I couldn’t really see well enough to know for sure from where I was sitting, but I was almost certain that stupid AI was smirking

“Everyone, shut the fuck up!” Felix eventually yelled from where he had climbed up onto the stage. It worked, somehow, everyone looking up from their self-inflicted chaos to see what the scrawny Korean kid had to say. He turned to look at the AI on the podium next to him. “So what you’re saying is, if we want to win this game, and leave the school, we have to kill somebody and get away with it?”

“That is correct,” the AI responded.

Felix nodded to himself and I got a sinking feeling in my stomach that something bad was about to happen. Thankfully I only had to wait about two seconds for that to be confirmed when it turned out that it _was_ knives that Felix had tucked under his sleeves as he pulled fucking four of them out. “So I just need to kill everybody, got it.”

Chaos erupted again, “he has fucking knives!?”

“Who brings knives to school??”

“Those are throwing knives, everybody duck!”

“What the hell is wrong with you!?”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAH”

“Down on the ground, asshole!”

The last voice was Tex, appearing out of nowhere to tackle Felix to the floor. Like she was some sort of SWAT agent. Though, that would’ve been one explanation for the entirely black outfit. Being an undercover cop.

“It appears I must add another rule already,” Phi said, almost sounding annoyed. But even a guy like me knew that simple AI like this one had to be weren’t capable of that sort of thing. “Rule Six: You may only kill a maximum of one person during the Survival Game. And that makes Rule Seven: Additional rules may be added when necessary.” The digital display updated to show the new rule and Tex let go of a disgruntled Felix as he put his knives away.

The knives being put away seemed to calm everyone down for a moment until they realized we were still stuck in some sort of Battle Royale nonsense. It was Carolina who finally spoke up amidst the confusion, “Phi, surely this is some sort of mistake. There’s nothing to be gained from this, not to mention the legal ramifications. I know the Director’s research methods have always been unorthodox but—”

“There’s no mistake. We would like to see how you all perform under pressure. If you do not wish to kill anyone, the alternative is for you to survive for the length of the trial period.”

“How long is the trial period?” North asked, holding onto his sister so she’d stop trying to punch Maine.

Phi made the almost-laugh noise again, “that has yet to be seen. It will continue until we have achieved our desired result. That is, for all intents and purposes, indefinitely.”

I felt my fists ball up at my sides. “Well, fuck your survival game! And fuck your rules! We’ll just wait, the police will come eventually!” someone yelled out, and after a moment’s pause I realized it was me. Crap, now everyone was staring at me. I decided I should probably continue, “I mean, there’s no way you can keep us here indefinitely. I dunno what kind of crazy shit is going on in this school, but it’s not what I came here for, that’s for sure. So we can wait. Because I’m sure everything will sort itself out and we won’t have to do anything _crazy_ like trying to kill people,” I explained, punctuating my impromptu speech with a pointed look at Felix, who just shot me a sour look from where he was leaning against the stage.

The AI looked at me with what almost felt like a curious gaze. Kinda made me uncomfortable. “Lavernius Tucker. Our… special student. You seem to feel very strongly on this subject. I suppose we’ll have to hope your classmates feel the same way,” he said as he looked around at the other students. “In any case, that is all I have to say for now. Good luck, students,” Phi finished, blinking out of existence before we could ask it anything else.

For a moment, no one said anything. We were all just standing around in a heavy atmosphere, staring at each other. It was the kind of silence you can feel weighing on your shoulders. I guess at this moment it was the weight of our potentially imminent deaths. After all, we were seventeen strangers, thrust into a life or death situation. How were we supposed to know we all really weren’t willing to resort to desperate measures to get out? One thing was for sure, at that moment, no one trusted anyone but themselves. Which, I had to imagine, was exactly what whoever had locked us up here wanted.

“So we’re not gonna let the tiny spaz keep all those knives, right?” South again, ever our savior from awkward silences.

Felix obviously took offense to this, though, “hey, fuck off, these are top of the line!” He recoiled, clutching his forearm as if he suspected someone was going to physically take his knives off of him. I guess it wasn’t unreasonable seeing as Maine was already taking a step forward, cracking his knuckles.

“You were the one threatening to throw them at people!” CT chimed in even as she put a hand on the big guy’s arm to get him to stand down. “How are we supposed to know you aren’t still planning on killing someone?”

York shrugged from where he was still sitting casually in the front row before contributing. “We could tie him up,” he suggested with a sly smirk on his face.

“Y-Yeah! Tie him up!” Simmons piped up in a nervous voice. I figured the idea appealed to him because he was mortally afraid of Felix and wasn’t physically capable of doing anything about it personally. It didn’t even occur to him that it was a joke. Or at least, I think it was a joke.

I expected an angrier response but Felix just scoffed, “you can sure fucking try! Don’t forget I’m—”

“No one is tying anyone up!” Carolina silenced us all again. She’d climbed up in front of the podium on the stage while none of us had been paying attention, I guess. “The last thing we should be doing right now is fighting. What I need everyone to do right now is split up and look for _answers_. Who’s really behind this, any ways out, anything. But most importantly…” She paused to look around at everyone, pointedly, “we need to stand together. Arguing amongst ourselves is exactly what they want us to do. So cut it out. We’re all here for a reason, so let’s demonstrate what it means to be a Freedom’s Lance student!”

I gathered from the mumbling that not everyone really was behind Carolina’s inspiring message, but no one was going to argue with a girl like this. There was just something about the way she talked and the way she carried herself that made you want to follow her lead, I guess. Some people are just like that.

“Anyway, if we should be suspicious of anyone, it’s Tucker,” Felix spoke up again, further making me dislike him, “You all heard what the AI said. He’s ‘special.’ And there was definitely only supposed to be sixteen of us. It started to say sixteen before it said seventeen. Isn’t that suspicious?”

I didn’t think anyone would listen to Felix’s obvious deflection but clearly I had overestimated my fellow students once again, because the suggestion elicited a chorus of suspicious murmurs in the group. “Dude!” I objected, “I’m like, the least suspicious one here! I don’t even _have_ a talent like the rest of you. I’m the most normal one here.”

That probably wasn’t the best way to say it since that just seemed to make the conspiratorial whispering louder. Crap. “What the hell do you mean by that?” Wash speaks up, narrowing his eyes at me like I’ve offended his great ancestors.

“I knew it! He wasn’t on any of the message boards! He’s not even supposed to be here!” Simmons cried out, half hiding behind an unamused Grif like he was scared of _me_ now. Seriously, this guy needed to take a chill pill. No one was disagreeing with him though. Everyone’s eyes were on me again and it was a whole lot more uncomfortable than before.

“Listen to me!” I shouted over the renewed angry murmuring, “There was like, a lottery. I got picked for having ‘outstanding luck,’ their words, not mine. Seriously,” I added as I rummaged in my pockets for the folded up acceptance letter, only to find nothing. “Shit well, I _had_ my letter as proof but I dunno where it went.”

“That sounds fake,” Grif contributed unhelpfully.

“Totally fake,” South agreed.

Carolina of all people countered as she climbed down off the stage to join our group that had congregated around the base. “No, I heard about this,” she explained, “it’s something new they’re trying this year.” She paused before shooting Felix a look, “so how about we all refrain from _baselessly accusing_ each other, ok?” Felix just made a face and of course didn’t apologize. Dick.

“Wait,” Grif frowned as he looked back at Simmons who was still vaguely using him as a human shield, “message boards? Were you like… scoping us all out or something? That’s creepy.”

“N-no it’s not like that! I just— Everyone always—” Simmons protested, red faced.

Reginald of all people, the fancy British guy, stepped in, “there’s nothing wrong with scoping out your competition, is there? That way you know who you might like to avoid, yes?” He set a hand on Simmons’ shoulder and from how uncomfortable the redhead looked I suddenly suspected Reggie here was one of those people. “Though it certainly leaves the rest of us at a disadvantage, doesn’t it? In the spirit of full disclosure and cooperation, my talent is long distance precision shooting.”

“So, sniping?” York asked, raising an eyebrow.

Reggie scoffed, “if you must be so gauche, yes. It’s not as if I go around killing people. It is a purely athletic pursuit. You may expect to see me in the Olympic Games in a few years.” Great to see he was humble about it, too.

York just sort of laughed and shrugged, but it felt a little bit feigned to me. Maybe I was just imagining things. “Fair enough,” he responded, “I’m an escape artist. So, no Olympics for me. I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess Hyeong over here is a knife thrower? Seems like we’ve got a good stage show in the making.”

Felix laughed, smoothly pulling out a knife and flipping it in his hand in one fluid motion. “You bet. World champion last year. So y’know, I don’t _normally_ try to throw them at people.” He slid the knife back into what I guess must be some sort of sheath under his sleeve.

“Really doesn’t make it any better, dude,” I said, for some reason. Luckily he didn’t have a chance to do more than raise his eyebrow at me before Simmons spoke up.

"Well some of us have actually _useful_ talents," was what he said, suddenly smug. Of course he still flinched when Felix whipped his head around to glare at him. I don’t know what he expected to happen when he made a comment like that, he shouldn’t have been surprised.  
  
Caboose raised his hand then, "Oh, oh, I know! like making grilled cheeses!" It was his first contribution to the discussion other than yelling nonsense during the assorted chaos we’d experienced in the last five minutes. On the upside, at least this one sort of made sense.  
  
Simmons just squawked however, "no one has a talent that specific! And besides, anyone can make a grilled cheese." He folded his arms, very sure of his point.  
  
"But don't you see, Simmons? The simplicity of the grilled cheese is exactly what makes true mastery so difficult!"  
  
"I swear to god Grif, if you try to tell me you got into this school for making grilled cheese—"  
  
“Now, could we get on with this and save the comedy act for later?” Reggie interrupted, clearly so annoyed with us commoners holding him up from whatever important business he must have.  
  
On cue, Simmons suddenly regained his confidence, "well," he said, "I was accepted into the school for my memory." He seemed very proud of the fact. I wasn't really sure why though, because that's not really a talent.  
  
It seemed to mean something to CT though, going by the look on her face. "Oh, actually I think I have heard of you,” she tapped the side of her face thoughtfully, “Are you the guy they call The Human Computer?"  
  
"Yes!" Simmons said, far too loudly. I guess he was glad to finally get some validation. "I was expecting to find some like minds at this school," he went on, almost visibly swelling up with confidence, "but so far I have to admit I'm not impressed with any of you." Again, I had to wonder if he really thought about the words coming out of his mouth. It was like he was asking to get punched.  
  
CT nodded, before glancing around at the rest of us, "he's pretty well known amongst people in IT, apparently he remembers everything he sees and can do crazy mental math, like a computer. But," she added, making Simmons suddenly look worried, "I also heard that he's pretty insufferable, I guess that’s true too."  
  
"Hey!" Simmons objects, red in the face again.  
  
Grif put a hand on his shoulder in a seemingly earnest fashion, "sorry Simmons, but all the evidence we have right now points directly to that conclusion. Maybe you should work on being less of an annoying nerd." Simmons made a face but settled on just sulking and didn't say anything more.  
  
After an awkward pause I elected to speak up, "so CT, does that mean that you're involved in computers too?"  
  
"Yeah. I do IT but what I'm really good at is audio tech. It's nothing fancy but I guess it’s good enough at it to get in here," she shrugged. So far, she seemed like one of the least strange people in the group. I was glad to see that there were people here that didn't either act incredibly bizarrely or were blatantly dangerous, you know?

“Oh, oh!” Caboose raised his hand again, I’m not sure why because he just kept on talking anyway, “if Simmons is a calculator that means he’s a robot, right?? That means I can fix him if he breaks.” He then looked directly at Simmons, “So do not worry, Simmons. As long as you are not mean, I will help you.”

“He’s not literally a calculator,” Wash sighed as he rubbed at his forehead, and then looked back up at him, confused, “wait, _you_ know how to fix robots?” I hated to agree with him but I also was having a hard time believing this premise.

“Yes!” Caboose responded happily, “because they are all my friends.”

I glanced over at CT, raising my eyebrows, tacitly asking if she could confirm this. She made a bit of a face back, but responded, “yeah, heard of this guy too. They call him the Robot Whisperer. He’s got a knack for fixing robots despite never really having any formal training.”

Butch patted Caboose on the back. “Well I think that’s just swell! The important thing is finding something you enjoy doing, don’t you think?” He grinned, glancing over at me.

I don’t know if it was a coincidence or if he was trying to encourage me to find a real reason to be here, so I decided to just press onward. “Let me guess, Butch, you’re a life coach?”

“That’s a good guess, Tucker!” He responded, predictably. “I don’t normally work one on one, though. Usually I speak with large groups! That way I can help the most people, you know?”

“So you’re a motivational speaker!” Donut piped up excitedly.

Butch pointed at him, “you got it! And what about you, Donut? I’m sure you have a wonderful skill to bring to the table as well.”

Donut seemed a little surprised, but smiled. “Well, I suppose it’s not very useful here but I’m an interior designer!” he said, surprising nobody.

South groaned again, “Oh my god, I’m done with this nonsense.” After flipping us all the bird, South turned on her heel and stormed out of the auditorium.

Wash stepped forward, then, “she’s right though, this isn’t that important right now. Like Carolina said, we should be focusing on a way to get out of here. We don’t even know the full extent of this lockdown.” He glanced around at the group, then settled on Donut, “Can you draw a floor map of this place just by walking around?”

“Well, I can certainly try! Leave it to me,” Donut replied with enthusiasm, giving Wash a thumbs up before trotting out of the auditorium.

“Alright,” Wash continued, “everyone else can split up amongst the six hallways and report back here when they’re done. I don’t care who you go with just make sure we cover—”

I suddenly felt someone sling their arm around my shoulder and to my displeasure, when I looked over, it was Felix. “I think me and our special student will go together, right Tucker?” He winked at me. Why was he winking at me? I didn’t want to be associated with this creep. I looked over at Carolina, hoping she’d object.

But no, all she says is, “Maine, go with them to make sure Tucker actually comes back alive.” Gee, thanks. Personally, I still felt like tying him up was the best course of action, but before anyone could complain Maine steered both of us out of the room.

Once he let go of us, I immediately turned to look at Felix, “what the hell dude? First you accuse me of being shady and now you’re roping me in to your shit?” I was annoyed, really. I knew this guy was trouble the moment I saw him.

“Let’s take this hallway, yeah?” Felix asked, ignoring my outrage as he pointed down one of the hallways. I glanced back towards the auditorium where the others were starting to filter out, but I was already being pulled down the hallway by Maine, who I guess was just impatient. The guy’s yet to say more than two entire words so who’s to say what he was thinking.

I managed to shake Maine off me and job after Felix who was already slipping into the first classroom in the hallway. “Felix!” I yelled, annoyed at this point by his bizarre behavior.

Felix looked over at Maine before jerking his thumb at the shutters covering the windows, “hey big guy, you wanna see if you can move these shutters at all?” Maine assented with a grunt and Felix finally turned to look at me. “Chill, alright? I don’t actually think you’re anything more than you say. I was just trying to distract everyone.”

Unbelievable. “How is that any better!?” I asked incredulously. “Do you have some sort of brain injury? Because your logic doesn’t make any sense.”

“Ouch, harsh,” Felix said as he started rifling through the desks. “I’m sorry, alright? For what it’s worth, I thought you seemed cool. That’s why I wanted to tag along with you.”

I opened up one of the desks half-heartedly, finding nothing but a bunch of horrifying sheets of paper covered with math problems. In his defense, I knew a lot of guys who were sorta rough around the edges like this. Hell, one of my best friends growing up, I met because he stole my favorite action figure. It was a long time ago. I don’t play with action figures anymore, obviously. Finally, I closed the desk and sighed. “Just promise me you aren’t gonna try to stab anyone? Especially me. But also everyone else.”

Felix laughed, “yeah alright. I can get behind the dramatic protagonist speech you gave earlier. Stick it out until we can _get_ out, right?” It was a more reasonable response than I was expecting, really. But he seemed pretty genuine when he said it. And so far he didn’t seem like much of a liar, just a bit of a loose cannon with no filter.

But then I just about jumped out of my skin in response to the terrible noise that I moments later realized was Maine punching one of the shutters. There was distinctly a cracking noise underneath the discordant clang of metal, and given the way Maine was glaring at his knuckles, I had a sneaky suspicion about what happened. “Dude… did you punch it so hard that you broke your hand?”

Maine grunted at me in response, but the way he tried to flex his fingers only to wince slightly answered that. “Emily’ll fix later,” he finally said, before walking out of the room and further down the hallway. I guess he wasn’t too concerned about it.

“Weird guy. You coming?” Felix asked as he went after him.

I had to sigh for a second before bringing up the rear, “Why did he mention Emily? Is she some sort of medical prodigy or something?” I asked Felix, figuring it would be quicker to ask him than Maine. The big guy didn’t seem to mind, heading into the next classroom.

Trotting behind the teacher’s desk and trying the drawers only to find them locked, Felix hummed a moment before answering, “yeah, I think so. She seemed to know a lot about concussions, that’s why she was watching you when you woke up.”

I glanced around at the room itself. All three I’d been in so far had been exactly the same. Light blue walls, save for the one that used to have huge windows but was now just 80% metal shutter. All the desks were made of pale wood and way fancier than anything I’d seen before, with a built in drawer and everything. Given the work left in all the desks and the big poster featuring an owl with glasses saying ‘Math is everywhere!’, this was probably the math wing. “What, was I the only one who woke up with a headache?”

Maine grunted, walking back toward the door having unsuccessfully tried to open all the shutters in here as well. “No,” he added.

“You just took a lot longer than everyone else to wake up is all. She was ‘concerned for your health,’ her words.” Felix clarified as we headed into the next classroom. We met with similar results in the next classroom, and the one after that. In fact, all the classrooms told us absolutely nothing other than there were also classrooms for business in this wing. None of the computers in any of the classrooms even turned on.

Finally, we reached the end of the hall, standing in front of a door with a sign that said “LIBRARY” in big blue letters. But there was caution tape plastered all over it and when Felix tried the handle it was locked. “Well that’s fucking useless, isn’t it?” he said before stepping aside and letting Maine try to break it down with his massive frame.

“The library is currently off limits,” a digitized voice said right behind my head and I almost yelped as I turned around to see a new AI, this one blue. Unlike Phi, there was no human inflection in this one’s voice.

“Oh fuck, there’s more of them,” Felix swore under his breath. Even Maine made a noise that resembled annoyance. I mean, our experience with AI in this school so far had been less than positive. Could you really blame us?

The tiny blue man nodded and I idly wondered where he was being projected from. “That is correct. There are six of us operating in this school. You have already met Phi, who is installed in the red wing, Languages. Currently we are in the blue wing, Mathematics and Information Sciences. You may call me Gamma.” I dimly registered that the walls in the hallway were painted blue. I think the other halls had been different colors when I’d walked by them. Great, a color coded prison school.

“Ok Gamma, why’s the library off limits?” I asked, though I had a sneaking suspicious it wasn’t going to give us a real answer. Call it a hunch.

“Because,” it replied in its irritating robot voice.

“Because why?” Felix pressed.

“Knock knock.”

“What?” I asked, Maine grunting in confusion behind me.

“I said, knock knock,” the AI repeated.

I sighed and gave up, “who’s there?”

“You are.”

“You are who?”

“You are all going to die here. Ha-ha,” the AI delivered its shitty punchline with no inflection at all before disappearing as quickly as it came.

I felt my shoulders sag. “God, I fucking hate this place. I hope someone else found something useful.”

But judging by the looks on everyone’s faces when we got back, that was too much to hope for. Carolina insisted we wait to report in until everyone got back, so while Emily inspected Maine’s hand, I sat down and finally fished my phone out of my pocket.

“It won’t work, we already tried,” Felix quipped as he sat down next to me. “Or rather, they must’ve messed with it. Pretty rude if you ask me. I’d rather they’d just taken them away.” He kicked his feet up on the row of seats in front of us and folded his arms behind his head.

When I turned it on, I saw what he meant. “School Handbook” was written across the top of the screen with my name and a menu beneath it. “Student Profiles,” “School Rules,” and “Twilight Syndrome” were the only options. I elected to avoid all of them.

The auditorium doors swung open again, with Tex dragging a disgruntled looking South behind her. North walked up the aisle to meet them, but more importantly, as I looked around, I realized everyone had now returned. Carolina seemed to have noticed too, because as soon as the three of them sat down she stood up, clearing her throat.

“Now that everyone is back, we can review what we learned. Wyoming and I took the purple wing, apparently the social sciences department. We met an AI named Theta there. At the end of the hallway it looks like there’s an indoor pool but the area is closed off at the moment. We… didn’t find anything else useful.” Her shoulders slumped a bit at the last sentence, she was obviously put out at not finding anything, as take charge as she seemed to be.

Wash stood up then, “Ours too, connects to the pool on the other side. I think the higher floors must have a gym because the black wing we were in was mostly sports and nutrition. An AI named Omega gave us a hard time when we asked why we couldn’t get in.”

“I found a football!” Caboose contributed, holding up his prize.

Immediately Wash seemed incredibly tired. Caboose must have worn him out. “Yes,” he said, “Caboose found a football.”

“Ours gave us a hard time too,” I said as I stood up, “But at least we know the library is at the end of the math wing? The blue one. We didn’t find anything else. Maine broke his hand trying to punch through one of the shutters, though.” Maine grunted in confirmation.

“Did anyone _not_ get an AI telling them nothing about why there’s places blocked off?” York asked, once again sitting in the front row of seats, “I had Phi in mine, telling me it ‘wasn’t my concern’ why the infirmary was off limits.”

Simmons suddenly jumped up, looking excited, “yes! The labs are open. The first floor, anyway. It’s in the green wing. There’s so much cool equipment, you guys should’ve seen it!”

“Yeah, and racks full of all sorts of deadly acids and poisons,” CT added, concern on her face, “they probably left the chemistry lab open for us to give people means for murder. We didn’t find anything other than that.”

“Great,” Carolina rubbed at her face, “so the only thing we’ve found so far makes the situation worse.”

“on a positive note,” North spoke up, “Sigma said that the kitchen gets restocked daily. So we don’t have to worry about food. The cafeteria is inside the dorms, which is off of the orange wing. We’ve all got our own rooms.”

“So we can all be comfortable while we die,” Grif added dryly as he bit into a doughnut.

“All the rooms are soundproof and have their own bathrooms!” Emily added, ever positive. “Though they don’t have first aid kits in them, which I think is an oversight.”

“And no one found anything to help us get out?” Carolina asked, though I’m sure she already knew the answer was no. No one said anything, just exchanged worried glances. “Alright,” she sighed. “It’s late, and it’s been a long day. Everyone go get some rest and we can reconvene in the morning.” I was honestly expecting her to end with ‘dismissed,’ with the authoritative tone she spoke in, but no such luck.

People slowly started to filter out, and when I finally made my way over to the dorms, I ended up having a silent dinner of roast beef sandwiches with Felix, Grif, and CT. No one really felt like saying anything, the heavy mood of hopelessness being a major mood killer. When I laid finally laid down in bed, I was certain I wouldn’t be able to sleep, but I guess I was more tired than I thought because I passed out almost immediately. Well, at least tomorrow couldn’t possibly get any worse.

PROLOGUE: END  
REMAINING STUDENTS: 17

**Author's Note:**

> For those familiar with the games, I'd like "free time" segments to be chosen by popular vote (like Orenronen did in his LPs for those that remember those). 
> 
> Basically, include in the comments if you'd like to vote for one or two characters you'd like for Our Protagonist Tucker to hang out with! The most popular votes will be chosen for the next "free time" segment and then votes will be reset. If no one votes I'll just choose myself but I thought voting would be fun!


End file.
